Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to manufacture of semiconductor devices. More specifically, improved methods and solutions are described for cleaning a substrate surface prior to epitaxial growth.
Description of the Related Art
Epitaxial growth is widely used in manufacturing semiconductor devices, display devices, and other devices. Before the epitaxial layer is deposited on the substrate, a surface cleaning process is performed to remove native oxides and/or other impurities from the deposition surface, and increase the quality of the epitaxial layer being formed.
Deposition of Group III-V elements may be advantageous in certain applications for silicon-based devices. For example, Group III-V elements may serve as a channel, or fin, material for sub-7 nanometer (nm) complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices due to the low contact resistance, superior electron mobility and lower operation voltage. However, there are major challenges of growing III-V material on III-V, such as lattice mismatch, valence difference, thermal property differences, conductivity differences, and anti-phase defects.
The current wet or dry cleaning processes may not be suitable for reliable fabrication of next-generation devices with Group III-V materials, such as InP, InAs, GaAs and InGaAs because they are high power, high temperature (>600° C.) processes. Furthermore, they are not suitable for cleaning materials inside very small features (<7 nm), and they create a damaged surface layer.
Thus, there is a need in the art for improved methods and solutions for cleaning an InGaAs or III-V substrate prior to epitaxial growth of III-V channel materials.